On June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that says the Patent and Trademark Office must not approve any trademark that may “disparage…or bring…into contempt or disrepute” any “persons, living or dead.” The decision, Matal v Tam, 15-1293, is unanimous.
The basis for the decision is the free speech portion of the First Amendment. The government had tried to defend the law by saying that when the government grants a trademark, that is really government speech. The Court rejected that argument.
The government also tried to defend the law by saying government can restrict speech if the government is creating a valuable platform for the person or group which applies for the trademark. The Court rejected that argument as well.
The government argued that the law treated everyone alike, because no one is permitted to register certain types of names, but that argument was also rejected.
The logic of this decision would seem to apply to Voter Handbooks, which are created by state governments in some states and mailed to every registered voter. These Handbooks typically let parties or candidates publicize their message. Sometimes governments try to restrict what the party or candidate says. For example, in 2016, the California Secretary of State refused to let one candidate for U.S. Senate, Paul Merritt, say that he is a registered independent. Also the California law does not permit any candidate to mention his or her opponent.
Merritt is currently suing over the censorship of his 2016 statement in the California voters handbook. The case is still in U.S. District Court.
Paul Merritt is not a registered independent.
Merritt attempted to format a heading that applied to all candidates. The formatting of the voter handbook is government speech. The government has a rational interest in ensuring that the heading for candidates matches what the voter will see on the ballot, including the candidate’s name, designation, and party preference.
The SOS should have provided a form that let the candidate indicate the information that will appear in the header, as well as standardized contact contact information such as mailing address, web page, e-mail address and phone number, and then let the candidate have free-form in the rest, and should let the candidate see the proofs.
Paul Merritt is a registered independent. I don’t know why you say he isn’t.
What does his affidavit of voter registration say? How is his registration tabulated?